One year after the release of Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky, the game is getting a massive update titled “Atlas Rises.” One of the biggest announcements is the much needed addition of multiplayer. Up to 16 players will be able to see each other, in form of floating orbs. It will allow them to communicate and explore together. The game will utilize VOIP (Voice over IP), allowing proximity-based voice chat with others nearby. Portals will come in use for quick travel and meeting up with others.

“Atlas Rises” is also bringing 30 hours of new story content, doubling the lore and interactions of the existing game. Players can discover the truth behind the Abandoned Building logs, the World of Glass, the Sentinels, the Redemption of the Gek, and the meaning of sixteen. A regenerated system adds wealth, economy and conflict levels to star systems. To help with this, the Galaxy Map has been overhauled, improving navigation and providing access to key information. Players can install galactic technology to be able to filter the map by lifeform, wealth and economy.

The variety and visual quality of planetary biomes has been improved and players can explore rare new exotic planet types. As you explore, discover and scavenge lost cargo from gigantic crashed freighters on planetary surfaces and use the terrain manipulator to excavate buried resources in the region. Completing salvage missions will earn you guild rewards and new tasks will be available from the new Mission Agent in Space Stations. Missions are constantly generated and cater to all play styles (scanning, trading, combat and exploration).

New economic variables bring depth to trading between star systems, which are now classed based on their economic strengths and weaknesses. New trade goods have been added and players can meet supply and demand by purchasing goods at a low price, and hauling them to economically favorable systems. A tiered crafting system allows increasingly valuable products to be crafted by combining harvestable materials. Gas harvesters have also been introduced, allowing you to extract valuable elements from a planet’s atmosphere to use in crafting. Combine crafted products to create increasingly valuable items that can be sold on the Galactic Marketplace. New maintenance interactions have been introduced for all harvesting equipment, bringing more depth to farming, mining and harvesting.

Changes have been made to the user interface, which now has a new mission log allowing you to view your pending missions, and to decide which to track. The discovery page gives a clearer and visually improved view of your journey and an in-game guide has been added, offering explanations and tips. The journey milestone page has been updated to show progress toward guild specific milestones.

These are just some of the No Man’s Sky “Atlas Rises” updates. Visit the site here for more details and for the list of patch notes. If you’ve stepped away from the game, unsatisfied with what it has brought to the table so far, “Atlas Rises” may make you want to revisit soon.

I'm the owner and editor-in-chief of Horror Geek Life! I'm a sucker for cheesy horror, a Fallout addict, and collect way too many comics. I'm also honored to be a film judge at the 2018 Women in Horror Film Festival.